Does China's Present Currency Valuation Undermine the Global Economy

Is the Chinese yuan undervalued? Are the Chinese "manipulating" the value of the renmimbi in relation to the dollar? What are the implications of a Chinese currency revaluation for the world economy, for the U.S. and for China? Would any cure for current U.S.-Chinese trade imbalances be worse than the disease?

Join Nicholas R. Lardy and Albert Keidel as they take opposite sides on the question of whether a Chinese revaluation would help or hinder global economic stability. Looking more broadly, this debate will explore whether the U.S. and Chinese economies are as interdependent as some say and whether the weak yuan is postponing an American reckoning with over-consumption and chronic deficits.

Nicholas R. Lardy is the Anthony M. Solomon Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Lardy has written numerous articles and books on the Chinese economy. His most recent books are The Future of China's Exchange Rate Policy (2009), China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities (2008), and China: The Balance Sheet (Public Affairs, 2006), to which he contributed chapters on China's domestic economy and China in the world economy.

Albert Keidel, a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, currently teaches a graduate course on Chinese economic policy at Georgetown University and is an independent researcher with over 25 years' experience analyzing China's economy. He served as acting director and deputy director for the Office of East Asian Nations at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. From 2004 to 2009 he was a Senior Associate in the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he focused on issues relating to China's economic reforms, macroeconomics, regional development, and poverty reduction strategy.

Leo Abruzzese is responsible for the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) editorial
operations in the Americas. Based in New York, he writes regularly on the US economy. In 2003, he was also named Deputy Director of the EIU's Country Analysis division. He served as a Macroeconomic Analyst for the EIU's Asia team, preparing reports on
Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

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